ICE ‘surge’ puts 160 Southern California immigrants behind bars

– LA Daily News

“More than 160 people in the greater Los Angeles area were arrested over five days in a “surge” operation targeting immigrants with felony records and fugitives, federal officials said Friday, pushing back on reports a day earlier of widespread random raids — reports that officials called “dangerous” and “irresponsible.”

“While this week’s operation was an enforcement surge, the focus was no different than the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said in a statement Friday.

Officials began the operation on Monday and concluded it at noon Friday, but not after rounding up 150 — of the 160 total — who had criminal histories in a six-county area that included 55 communities, according to ICE.

The operation targeted criminal aliens who re-entered the country illegally or who were fugitives.

Of the 150 who had criminal histories, their records included felony convictions for serious offenses such as child sex crimes, weapons charges and assaults, according to ICE.

Those arrested included immigrants from a dozen countries — and 95 percent were men, ICE said.

Officials said their cases will be presented to the U.S. attorney’s office for prosecution.

Among those arrested, according to ICE:

• A Salvadoran national who was allegedly part of the MS-13 gang. He was arrested in Huntington Park and was wanted in his native country for aggravated extortion, ICE said.

• A Brazilian national arrested in L.A. and wanted in Brazil for alleged cocaine trafficking.

• An Australian national from West Hollywood. He was wanted on suspicion of lewd acts with a child.

The announcement from ICE followed a night of protests after widespread reports of sweeps across Southern California from San Bernardino to Van Nuys.

Immigration advocates called for the immediate release of the detainees along with more transparency from ICE.

But ICE pushed back on how those reports spread, saying that the “reports of random sweeps are false, dangerous and irresponsible,” adding that they put law enforcement personnel and communities in unneeded danger.”

Five Biggest Legal Stupidities in the Ninth Circuit’s Decision To Stop Trump’s Executive Order

– DailyWire

“The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ absurd ruling against President Trump’s immigration and refugee executive order contains a bevy of legal problems. It’s not just a bad political ruling, though it is – it’s bad law. Here are five of the biggest problems with the ruling:

1. States Suffer “Concrete and Particularized Injury” If Aliens Can’t Come To University Classes. This is absolutely absurd. It would strike down virtually any immigration law. All immigration laws restrict classes of people from entering, numbers of people from entering. Some of those people would undoubtedly go to university, or teach there. Does this mean that states can now sue to overturn all immigration laws?

2. The Federal Government Doesn’t Suffer “Irreparable Injury” If The Courts Overrule Immigration Policy. The court casually states that while the government has an interest in combatting terrorism, the “Government has done little more than reiterate that fact.” The executive branch didn’t explain sufficiently to the judiciary why the executive order needed to be put into effect, and so the executive branch has to go home emptyhanded. Again, this is ridiculous. Are we supposed to wait to be hit? Would the judiciary apply this same standard to, say, gun control laws?

3. Everybody Has Due Process Rights. This is perhaps the craziest element of the ruling: the statement that everyone from lawful permanent residents to aliens with a visa traveling abroad has due process rights. The court even says that illegal aliens have due process rights. The Constitution isn’t just for citizens anymore – which begs the question as to why anyone would bother applying for citizenship.

4. Courts Can Look To Motive Rather Than Text. The court said that they could look at Donald Trump’s statements during the campaign about a Muslim ban in order to evaluate this executive order. This is dangerous. Attempting to read the minds of those who put together laws is far more arbitrary than reading the text or looking at the application of the law. It’s also amazing that the Ninth Circuit would say this now, but that the Supreme Court would ignore President Obama saying for YEARS that Obamacare was not a tax, then rule that Obamacare was indeed a tax.

5. The Court Refuses To Strike Down Portions. Normally, the court works to avoid striking down entire laws or staying entire executive orders. Instead, the court just threw up its hands and suggested that it had done its best, but it couldn’t bother doing a close read.

All in all, the decision is damningly silly. That doesn’t make the executive order a model of legal brilliance – it’s got plenty of problems I have discussed elsewhere. But the court’s decision here does more damage to the law than the executive order, and it ain’t close.”

….Continue reading @ Daily Wire

Mexican National charged with voting illegally in Illinois – ID Theft

– AmericanMirror

“Federal officials seem to be taking President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration as seriously as he is.

As U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was worn into his new post Thursday, U.S. District Court Magistrate Eric Long was arraigning an illegal immigrant in Urbana, Illinois for several counts of voter fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The 33-year-old Mexican national, Miguel Valencia-Sandoval, allegedly used a fake identity for years to vote in the 2012, 2014, and 2016 elections, and to open bank accounts, take out car loans, and open restaurants.

The scheme seemed to be working well until a trip to Mexico last month, when Valencia-Sandoval was detained as he attempted to cross back into the U.S. with a Texas birth certificate and Illinois ID card with the name Ramiro Guerrora Vaszuez.

During an interview with agents on Jan. 7, Valencia-Sandoval admitted, according to a federal affidavit, that he was not the true owner of the birth certificate and that in March 2005 he had purchased it from Oscar Guerrero-Vasquez — Ramiro Guerrero-Vasquez’s brother — for $50,000.

Valencia-Sandoval, who lives in the 0-to-100 block of Ivanhoe Drive, U, also admitted that he did not have Ramiro Guerrero-Vasquez’s permission to use his identity; had used the identity to live in Illinois since March 2005; had obtained driver’s licenses, bank accounts and loans for vehicles; had opened two restaurants that have since been sold; and had obtained a lawful permanent resident card for his wife.

Valencia-Sandoval, who has four children born in the United States, allegedly admitted that he’s an illegal immigrant from Mexico and police traced his fingerprints to two other previous encounters with law enforcement, though court records did not details the reasons for his arrests.

A grand jury indicted Valencia-Sandoval on a slew of federal charges this week.

“The indictment charges Valencia-Sandoval with making a false statement of U.S. citizenship in April 2012, on a passport application, in that he allegedly used another’s identity and stated he was a U.S. citizen when he was not. In addition, he is charged with aggravated identity theft related to the April 2012 passport application,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Also on Thursday in a separate indictment, Salvador Garcia-Luna, a 27-year-old in Champaign, Illinois, was indicted by a grand jury for aggravated identity theft, lying on a passport application and possessing a firearm as an illegal alien, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.

Garcia-Luna and Valencia-Sandoval both face up to 10 years in prison for making a false statement on a passport application and a minimum of two years on top of any other sentence for aggravated identity theft.”

While identity theft experts say this does not seem to be a malicious act, this was also not a victimless crime.

“Locally, it’s something that we’ve seen less of, but it is probably one of the more common forms of identity theft,” said Eduard Goodman, with Cyber Scout.

During one of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s workplace raids, Garcia de Rayos was caught using someone else’s Social Security number to gain employment at Golfland Sunsplash — a common practice among those in the country illegally, according to Goodman.

“Sometimes they’ll buy it from someone who sells them,” he said.

The number she was using appears to be registered to a man in Tucson.

She also had been using the Resident Alien Card number belonging to a second person, a 55-year-old man.

Garcia de Rayos pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years probation and community service.

“You can’t live in today’s society, you can’t do anything today without a Social Security number, and oftentimes these people just want to establish a life including pay regular bills, have cable, utilities, all of that requires an SSN,” Goodman said.

Goodman said he’s seen similar cases where the stolen Social Security numbers usually belong to children. They usually don’t discover their identity has been stolen until they reach adulthood and try applying for a student loan or a credit card.

“It impacts their taxes, it impacts their credit,” he said.

The effects can linger for years.

Identity theft experts say the issue as a whole has a much greater effect.

“We all absorb that collectively to some degree,” Goodman said. “We absorb it in higher interest rates, in more credit card fees, even in our own tax dollars not necessarily being distributed properly.”

Hundreds of immigrants convicted and not deported committed more crimes — 121 murders between 2010-2014

– Miami Herald

The Senate Judiciary Committee letter revealed that 121 immigrant convicts were charged with homicide following their release from ICE custody between 2010 and 2014.

“At least 121 killings within a four-year span were carried out by convicted immigrants who were not deported, according to a 2015 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee document recently reviewed by el Nuevo Herald.

Every year, federal immigration authorities release foreign nationals convicted of crimes — including murder — both because the U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited indefinite detention or because their countries refuse to take them back even after immigration judges have ordered deportation.

While the release of convicted immigrant criminals has been routine since the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling 15 years ago, the practice is now in the national spotlight because President Donald Trump has made it imperative to deport immigrant convicts as quickly as possible lest they commit more crimes.

A committee letter sent to the Department of Justice and the Departments of State and Homeland Security nearly two years ago said that at least 121 homicides “could have been avoided” between 2010 and 2014 had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), under the prior Obama administration, deported immigrant convicts instead of releasing them.

Most of these immigrant convicts are nationals of 23 countries described by ICE as “recalcitrant” because they routinely refuse to take back deportables. The bulk of these immigrant convicts in 2014 — 1,183 — were from Cuba, according to the letter. The other “recalcitrant” countries include Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Zimbabwe, according to ICE.

Generally, foreign nationals who are convicted of crimes are put into deportation proceedings after they complete their sentences.

A committee spokeswoman did not provide additional information on the letter when contacted by el Nuevo Herald last week.

But in response to the letter, Sarah Saldaña, then-director of ICE, stated that 33 of the 121 immigrant convicts accused of “homicide-related offenses” had been released on bond at the discretion of immigration courts. Another 24 were released because ICE was unable to obtain approval to deport them to their countries within the 180-day deadline set by the Supreme Court in 2001.”